Garfield High Auditorium Rebuild to Start
The new facility will include state-of-the-art upgrades as well as a taste of former glory.
By Gloria Angelina Castillo, EGP Staff Writer
Nearly three years after the Garfield High School auditorium fell victim to arson—and with continued negotiations with the school’s insurers still in deadlock—the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education has authorized a plan to rebuild the historic auditorium.
On Feb. 9, the board unanimously voted in favor of a state-of-the-art design that maintains many of the 1925 structure’s original architectural details.
“We can’t get exactly the same elements, like the chandelier, but it will have the original integrity and it will be updated to meet current codes,” school board Vice President Yolie Flores told EGP.
According to Flores, demolition for the $54 million project is scheduled to begin this summer for the charred auditorium and the attached structurally damaged administrative offices. The project’s price tag quickly escalated in keeping with current required state building and safety codes, which was also a sore point for the insurers, she said.
While construction will continue until fall of 2012, when the project is estimated to be completed, every effort will be made to minimize disruption to student learning, she said.
Previous fundraising efforts to finance the rebuild have raised about half a million dollars, but nearly all the project will be financed with Certificates of Participation, which Flores compared to credit cards, and with Measure Q funds, and whatever eventual insurance payout the district receives. On the down side, by using Certificates of Participation funds, LAUSD will incur interest charges on the expenditures. Flores said the District would have preferred to use the insurance payout to cover the cost.
The fire that destroyed the auditorium took place on May 20, 2007; a 17-year-old student was convicted of setting the blaze.
LAUSD had originally planned to renovate the auditorium alone, but studies revealed that the structural beams connecting the auditorium to the administrative offices are significantly damaged and need to be replaced, particularly since the two buildings are connected. The board decided to build a new building that would include the auditorium, administration and some classroom units.
The school’s administrative offices could be relocated to modular buildings on-campus or relocated to vacant classrooms available this fall when the opening of Esteban Torres High School relieves Garfield overcrowding, Flores told EGP.
The project design endorsed by the community is 60 percent complete; next month the district will present the design options for the main building, according to LAUSD. The school board is programmed to give its final approval on the design in June.
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February 18, 2010 Copyright © 2010 Eastern Group Publications, Inc.
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